Tasting

Hold a glass of Kit's Coty or another Kentish Sparkling up to the light. The colour ranges from pale straw yellow to a delicate gold. Fine strings of bubbles rise continuously from the bottom of the glass, and the finer these bubbles are, the longer the wine spent on the lees beforehand. Coarse, quickly vanishing bubbles, on the other hand, usually give away a young, briefly aged cuvée. Experts call the texture of this foam in the mouth the mousse.

Smell first, without swirling. On top there's almost always green apple, sometimes lemon, plus a faintly salty sea note that connoisseurs attribute to the coastal proximity. Swirl the glass and a second layer emerges: brioche, roasted bread, sometimes a hint of hazelnut. These toasty notes don't come from oak barrels but purely from long ageing on dead yeast, and that's exactly how you recognise a serious Kentish Sparkling straight away, no matter which vineyard in the county it comes from.

In the mouth, the acidity is the first thing you notice. It's higher in English sparkling wine than almost anywhere else. That's a direct legacy of the cool, often overcast summer Kent still has, even though it now runs warmer than it did fifty years ago. This acidity carries the wine, keeps it fresh and makes it remarkably age-worthy, even over a decade or more. Without it, a Kentish Sparkling would simply taste cloying.

With the still Bacchus, the picture shifts. Elderflower and gooseberry dominate the nose. In the mouth comes a similarly lively acidity, just without the perlage. In the end, the same thing matters for both wines: how long the flavour lingers after you swallow. With a carefully aged Kentish Sparkling, that's a good ten to fifteen seconds, and that's exactly what sets it apart from a simple supermarket Prosecco.